r the Bishop as for the
sun. He bestowed his blessing, and they blessed him. They pointed out
his house to any one who was in need of anything.

[Illustration: The Comfortor 1b1-5-comfortor]

Here and there he halted, accosted the little boys and girls, and smiled
upon the mothers. He visited the poor so long as he had any money; when
he no longer had any, he visited the rich.

As he made his cassocks last a long while, and did not wish to have it
noticed, he never went out in the town without his wadded purple cloak.
This inconvenienced him somewhat in summer.

On his return, he dined. The dinner resembled his breakfast.

At half-past eight in the evening he supped with his sister, Madame
Magloire standing behind them and serving them at table. Nothing could
be more frugal than this repast. If, however, the Bishop had one of his
cures to supper, Madame Magloire took advantage of the opportunity to
serve Monseigneur with some excellent fish from the lake, or with some
fine game from the mountains. Every cure furnished the pretext for
a good meal: the Bishop did not interfere. With that exception, his
ordinary diet consisted only of vegetables boiled in water, and oil
soup. Thus it was said in the town, when the Bishop does not indulge in
the cheer of a cure, he indulges in the cheer of a trappist.

After supper he conversed for half an hour with Mademoiselle Baptistine
and Madame Magloire; then he retired to his own room and set to writing,
sometimes on loose sheets, and again on the margin of some folio. He was
a man of letters and rather learned. He left behind him five or six
very curious manuscripts; among others, a dissertation on this verse in
Genesis, In the beginning, the spirit of God floated upon the waters.
With this verse he compares three texts: the Arabic verse which says,
The winds of God blew; Flavius Josephus who says, A wind from above was
precipitated upon the earth; and finally, the Chaldaic paraphrase of
Onkelos, which renders it, A wind coming from God blew upon the face of
the waters. In another dissertation, he examines the theological works
of Hugo, Bishop of Ptolemais, great-grand-uncle to the writer of this
book, and establishes the fact, that to this bishop must be attributed
the divers little works published during the last century, under the
pseudonym of Barleycourt.

Sometimes, in the midst of his reading, no matter what the book might
be which he had in his hand, he would suddenly